Onset velocity of circulating fluidization and particle residence time distribution:A CFD-DEM study

Until now, the onset velocity of circulating fluidization in liquid-solid fluidized beds has been defined by the turning point of the time required to empty a bed of particles as a function of the superfcial liquid velocity, and is reported to be only dependent on the liquid and particle properties. This study presents a new approach to calculate the onset velocity using CFD-DEM simulation of the particle residence time distribution （RTD）. The onset velocity is identified from the intersection of the fitted lines of the particle mean residence time as a function of superficial liquid velocity. Our results are in reasonable agreement with experimental data. The simulation indicates that the onset velocity is infuenced by the density and size of particles and weakly affected by riser height and diameter, A power-law function is proposed to correlate the mean particle residence time with the superficial liquid velocity. The collisional parameters have a minor effect on the mean residence time of particles and the onset velocity, but influence the particle RTD, showing some humps and trailing. The particle RTD is found to be related to the particle trajectories, which may indicate the complex flow structure and underlying mechanisms of the particle RTD.

Particle convective heat transfer near the wall in a supercritical water fluidized bed by single particle model coupled with CFD-DEM

Supercritical water fluidized bed(SCWFB)is a promising reactor to gasify biomass or coal.Its optimization design is closely related to wall-to-bed heat transfer,where particle convective heat transfer plays an important role.This paper evaluates the particle convective heat transfer coefficient(h_(pc))at the wall in SCWFB using the single particle model.The critical parameters in the single particle model which is difficult to get experimentally are obtained by the computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method(CFD-DEM).The contact statistics related to particle-to-wall heat transfer,such as contact number and contact distance,are also presented.The results show that particle residence time(τ),as the key parameter to evaluate h_(pc),is found to decrease with rising velocity,while increase with larger thermal boundary layer thickness.τfollows a gamma function initially adopted in the gas-solid fluidized bed,making it possible to evaluate h_(pc) in SCWFB by a simplified single particle model.The theoretical predicted h_(pc) tends to increase with rising thermal gradient thickness at a lower velocity(1.5 U_(mf)),while first decreases and then increases at higher velocity(1.75 and 2 U_(mf)).h_(pc) occupies 30%-57%of the overall wall-to-bed heat transfer coefficient for a particle diameter of 0.25 mm.The results are helpful to predict the overall wall-to-bed heat transfer coefficient in SCWFB combined with a reasonable fluid convective heat transfer model from a theoretical perspective.

Modeling the impact of the viaduct on particles dispersion from vehicle exhaust in street canyons

In this paper, the impact of the viaduct on flow and traffic exhausting particles dispersion within urban street canyons was numerically simulated using a computational fluid dynamics （CFD） model. Two-dimensional flow and dispersion of particles from traffic exhausts were modeled using the standard k-e turbulence model. The street canyons with a viaduct at different widths and different heights above the ground are simulated. The results show that the airflow in street canyon is evidently in- fluenced by the viaduct： The position of the main vortex center is changed, especially there are two strong vortexes when the viaduct is placed at 10 m height above the ground. It is found based on the study of the particles number concentrations （PNCs） that the viaduct may mitigate the pollution level in the street canyon sometimes. The impact of the viaduct width on PNCs is stronger than that of the height. The study of PNDs reveals that the mean PNCs at the wall of upwind building increase when a viaduct is placed in street canyon. In addition, it is found based on the study of mean particles residence time （PRT） that the removal of the particles strongly correlates to the mean PNCs. The results indicate that the viaduct is an important factor to influence the flow patterns and particles dispersion in street canyons.